Mostafa Nejati

Ranking airlines' service quality factors using a fuzzy approach: study of the Iranian society

Purpose – This paper seeks to review service quality factors of the airline industry, and to rank these factors in Iranian society. It aims to introduce a fuzzy TOPSIS approach for this purpose.Design/methodology/approach – The research was conducted among graduate students of the University of Tehran, Iran. In order to meet the objectives of the study, Fuzzy TOPSIS approach was used. Required information was gathered through a questionnaire.Findings – The results show that “Flight safety”, “Good appearance of flight crew” and “Offering highest possible quality services to customers 24 hours a day” are the most important airline service quality factors in the eyes of Iranian customers. Interestingly, “the possibility of checking flight schedule via telephone” has been selected as the least important quality factor by respondents. Research findings also announce that the majority of Iranian potential travellers prefer airplane as their transportation means. However, at the moment, they are mostly using bus...

Sustainable Development: A Competitive Advantage or a Threat?

Purpose – Organizations and businesses have evolved tremendously during the last years. Previously, the focus of organizations was on goods and production, however, later on this perspective has changed to a more knowledge and intellectual capital focus nowadays. As such, concepts of organizational knowledge and know‐how, as well as stakeholders and society rights are increasingly being raised and discussed in recent studies. This paper aims to present the fundamental questions on the importance of undertaking sustainable development roles by organizations and the effects that it can have on the organizations. The paper will also discuss how organizations can benefit from acting to their sustainable development roles and consider it as a means of competitive advantage, rather than an organizational threat.Design/methodology/approach – In‐depth literature review as well as years of experience of authors in the field has been used to develop this research.Findings – It is concluded that despite some initial...

Dataflow model for managing urban disasters: the experience of Bam earthquake

Purpose – The purpose of this paper is to provide a system based on the data flow diagram (DFD), which can be used to help urban policy makers reduce the consequences of natural disasters.Design/methodology/approach – The paper considers the socio‐technical perspective of government information systems and management, and draws on the collection and analysis of several public reports, media papers, and expert opinions published in the aftermath of the earthquake in Bam, Iran in December 2003, as one of the most destructive urban disasters in Iran and worldwide.Findings – Considering the rescue and disaster management activities after Bam earthquake, the paper examines and discusses how important a clear DFD‐based system for managing urban disasters is. Moreover, the DFD model is suggested as an expert system to better handle and manage operations and different organizations involved in the rescue process.Research limitations/implications – The paper requires a practical pilot implementation of DFD‐based s...

Scenario planning and futurology of the Persian Gulf post‐oil economy

Purpose – The purpose of this paper is to explore the economy of Persian Gulf countries following a post‐oil economy. This is accompanied with a futurology study and planning of certain scenarios that can be applied to these countries.Design/methodology/approach – This study applies a futurology approach by investigating various scenarios to explore the Arab economy after oil. As such, a series of possible policies are proposed that can be undertaken by Arab countries depending on their public policy. Each of the suggested policies involves different scenarios that have been formed and analyzed using an era‐based cellular planning system.Findings – The findings propose three main policies to be undertaken by Arab countries including: investing the oil income in miscellaneous economic baskets in order to minimize the vulnerability and maximize the profits; reducing the oil production in the coming years and transforming the one‐product oil economy to a value added petrochemical economy; and seeking new sou...

Putting sustainability at the core of knowledge management performance evaluation system

With the transformation of managerial views and the increasing focus on knowledge and intellectual capitals as the most important resources to the organizations, the necessity for retaining these resources and monitoring their effectiveness in order to know how they are utilized becomes significant. As for the universities, this requirement is even higher compared to other organizations, due to the fact that almost a complete chain of knowledge management processes and practices exist in the universities, from knowledge creation, planning, creation, development, and acquisition to knowledge updating, sharing, dissemination, utilization, and protection. Therefore, it is crucial to assess the performance of these knowledge management processes. Yet, it is noteworthy to re-look at universities to find out about their position in the community and their responsibilities towards the society at large. Universities do not operate in vacuum; rather their actions and decisions affect the society and the environment. Hence, any program aimed at evaluating the knowledge management performance of universities must also take into consideration their responsibilities toward the society and its sustainable development. This study emphasizes on the importance of putting sustainable development view at the core of any knowledge management performance evaluation effort and proposes a sustainable development-led framework for evaluating knowledge management performance in the university setting.